This year deZign Studio takes part in Vinoforum (1-16 June, ROME) with two projects. The first one is the design of Land Rover’ stand based on the performance of a natural landscape through overlapping curves and irregular shapes which set three environments: the drink zone, characterized by a sort of artificial cave, relax area and the space for the exhibition of the car.

The second one deals with the set up of 4 VIP areas (Moët & Chandon, Rai Radio 2) with modular bespoke seats and biofireplaces of the new Officine del Fuoco collection by British Fires.

Both the projects form part of the widest context of the collaboration between Vinoforum and Puntodifuga Legno&Design made with the aim to sensitize food&wine field to bespoke design of objects related to wine, spaces and set ups, by professional designers, in order to make tasting a 360° experience.

Factory started addressing the problem both through a visit to British Fires’ showroom, to see the models at close hand and to define company’s request, and by a wider issue about fire and its relationship with human being and architecture led by Carlo Bordin.

Second day saw designers focus their attention on the definition of the formal “dress” to give to the burners according with a serie of factors like position in the house, function, symbolic aspects related to fire, rituals and behaviours it can get, target and so on.

From the 10th to the 12th of February deZign Studio, together with Michele Fanfulli Studio e Puntodifuga Legno&Design will led a design factory in Rome promoted by British Fires, one of the first companies that imported bioethanol fireplaces in Italy. The factory will involve 14 designers which will work side by side for three days with the aim to develop new bio-fireplaces models to get, through the form, a reflection about idea of fireplace, about its symbolic value and about its to be the subject of a domestic ritual different from the traditional one. All this will take place in a location made available by the company and will allow the designers to be in contact, to share ideas and the creative process in order to answer to company briefing. The factory wil be a chance to promote young designers abilities and to elaborate, together with professionists, new ideas and inputs to improve British Fires products.

The CARBON FIBER DESIGN CONTEST aims to raise awareness among architects, designers and engineers towards the use of carbon fibers in new areas of application compared to traditional ones, by exploiting and enhancing the technical features of the material: mechanical strength, weight and moldability. The competition is open to the field of product design (internal and external) and aims to stimulate the research of new forms considered as the typical expression of this material on the one hand and on the other to promote the search for innovation in the use of carbon fiber thanks to its peculiarities.
The contest is sponsored by Olympus-FRP, specialized in composite materials, carbon fibers and new technologies for engineering and architecture, together with NCD Architects and we of deZign Studio and with the support of the ADI – Association for Industrial Design, University of Naples “Federico II” and Confartigianato, as an opportunity to carry out researches on the material and to identify some innovative uses.

The map of the creative community of a city, but much more too. Creativos.in is a project conceived by Colaborativa, a studio from Cordoba, Spain, made by Javier Buron Garcia, Magda Sanchez and Curro Crespo, dealing with development of strategies and tools for urban transformation through the fusion of architecture, urbanism and information technology. Their work, very innovative, goes from strategic planning to urban management, from geoposition applications to data visualization, from the organization of cultural events to others kind of inititiatives, all them united by the purpose of promoting the vision of an open, inclusive and sustainable city. As it’s easy to understand by their name, what characterizes them is a not hierarchical perspective of design, based on network concept. Inevitably creativosencordoba.com came out from their brilliant minds. I don’t remember how I found this website, but I was struck with it and I started to think about how was structured the creative community in Pescara, if there were more photographers than architects, who were them and in what quantities. Curiosty was too much and a few weeks later and several mails, thanks to Colaborativa willingness and skills, finally the map of creative peopole in Pescara is taking shape too. And this project is spreading to others cities.

I think thati in a moment of crisis like the one we are living now to know how the cultural environment of a city is organized can be really helpful. A simple treemap allows to immediatly visualize the dimensions of different fields and to identify, consequently, in every area, possible opportunities and weaknesses; in particular it allows u sto establish collaborations, contacts and interdisciplinary relationships, essentials for our job. Moreover the declinations adopted by those who belong to a certain category give an idea of a cultural system complexity and can encourage a constructive competition which adds quality and create a virtuous circle good for everyone. By now old corporatisms are completely inadeguates, they are outdated by global dimensions and above all they appear to me obsolete for a flexible and constantly changing reality. The idea of network, typical of web 2.0, is a fact and if it’s taking roots as mental category is because it’s a going model offering lots of opportunities. At last my personal view is creativos.in project fits very good to medium-sized cities, where quantities are such that they need a synthetic visualization, but at the same time they are not excessive to blur the single parts of the system. I don’t know where this project can lead but I have a little confidence: without creativos.in Cordoba and Pescara would be more poors.